The Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center, established in 2020, showcases the coupling of clean energy and agricultural activities to educate and inspire our community to take action to promote land stewardship within solar arrays. Our 2024 goals are to 1) empower and facilitate pportunities
for farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses to work within and adopt agrivoltaics, 2) create a policy environment at the state and local levels that enables, prioritizes, and incentivizes agrivoltaics, and 3) provide education to students and the community showcasing the benefits of agrivoltaics as a solution to our food, water, and energy challenges. Our Advisory Board is made up of specialists in their fields who use their expertise and network to support the goals of our organization.
Agrivoltaics is the utilization of microclimates created by solar panels to improve the stewardship of the land beneath them. Agrivoltaics consists of agricultural jobs, livestock, crops, herbs, berries, or soil health activities to benefit ecosystem services underneath and around solar arrays. Solar array system redesigns and construction practices that increase the height of solar panels, improve the security of electrical wires, and do not degrade lands during installation significantly contribute to enabling agrivoltaics.
In 2024, we are looking to add five new advisory board members to our organization with each board member specializing in at least one of the following different categories:
- Agriculture (Farming / Ranching)
- Land Use Planning
- Tourism
- Solar Energy Industry
- Philanthropy / Fundraising
- Banking / Finance
- Colorado University System
- State of Colorado Policymaking / Public Utilities Commission
- Finance / Accounting
- Human Resources
Expectations of advisory board members are to attend the scheduled two-hour quarterly meetings (for 2024 they are at 1pm on May 21, August 20, and November 19), engage with Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center staff in your specialty area at least once a month, and help connect staff to your network to achieve the goals of our organization.
Prospective advisory board members are encouraged to submit a brief application consisting of a recent resume and a short (no more than one page) letter stating their interest in and how they plan to support our organization.
Applications are due by February 29th, 2024 and to be submitted via email to info@coagrivoltaic.org.
See: https://www.coagrivoltaic.org/
